Page 12 - aruba-today-20201023

A12 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 23 OctOber 2020
New Huawei phone comes at crucial time for Chinese company

By KELVIN CHAN with the U.S. sanctions, it's
AP Business Writer also hurt by slumping con-
LONDON (AP) — Huawei's fidence in the brand that
new smartphone has an makes retailers less keen to
upgraded camera, its lat- stock its phones.
est advanced chipset and "And sadly, I don't think
a better battery. What it you're going to see the
may not have outside the Mate 40 performing par-
Chinese tech giant's home ticularly well outside of Chi-
market is very many buyers. na."
Huawei, which recently Huawei has a small but
became the world's No. enthusiastic fan base in
1 smartphone maker, on Europe, its biggest market
Thursday unveiled its Mate outside China. But some
40 line of premium phones, users are turned off by the
a product release that idea of sticking with the
comes at a crucial mo- brand because of a relat-
ment for the company as ed problem: recent models
it runs out of room to ma- like the Mate 40, priced at
neuver around U.S. sanc- 899 euros ($1,070) and up,
tions squeezing its ability to can't run Google's full An-
source components and The new Huawei Mate 40 Pro smartphone is held for a photo, in London, Wednesday Oct. 21, 2020. droid operating system be-
software. Associated Press cause of an earlier round of
The Mate 40 could be the Executives said this sum- ban. It makes (the situation) The company climbed to U.S. sanctions.
last one powered by the mer that production of extremely difficult," Yu said. the top of the global smart- He says the camera is
company's homegrown Ki- Kirin chips would end in Huawei, which is also a ma- phone rankings this sum- great but hesitates to rec-
rin chipsets because of U.S. mid-September because jor supplier of wireless net- mer, knocking Samsung off ommend the brand to oth-
restrictions in May barring they're made by contrac- work gear, is facing pres- top spot by shipping 55.8 ers because of the uncer-
non-American companies tors that need U.S. manu- sure in a wider global battle million devices in the sec- tainty. "I just can't imagine
from using U.S. technology facturing technology. In waged between the U.S. ond quarter to gain a 20% life without YouTube or
in manufacturing without a press preview this week and China over trade and share of the market, ac- Google," said Osten.
a license. Analysts say the ahead of the Mate 40's technological supremacy. cording to research firms To make up for losing
company had been stock- launch, staff declined to The U.S. government's ef- Canalys and International Google services, Huawei
piling chips before the ban answer questions on Hua- forts to lobby allies in Eu- Data Corp. has built its own app store
but its supply won't last for- wei's ability to source chips. rope to not give it a role in But the performance was and has been paying de-
ever. "This is a major chal- The head of Huawei's con- new high-speed 5G wire- driven by strong growth in velopers to create apps for
lenge to Huawei and it's sumer business, Richard Yu, less networks over cyberse- China while smartphone it. Users can request apps
really losing its market out- referred only briefly to the curity concerns has been sales in the rest of the world that aren't yet available,
side of China," said Mo Jia, issue at the end of a virtual paying off, with countries tumbled due to the coro- but it's not something that
an analyst at independent launch event Thursday. including Sweden and Brit- navirus pandemic. appeals to Chloe Hetelle,
research firm Canalys. The "For Huawei, nowadays we ain blocking its gear. Analysts say it will be hard a 35-year-old events orga-
latest U.S. restrictions mean are in a very difficult time. Huawei phones are not for Huawei to remain No. 1. nizer in Toulouse, France,
it "100% has closed doors We are suffering from the widely available in the U.S., "Huawei's in a tight spot," who bought a Huawei P20
for Huawei to secure its fu- U.S. government's third but they're sold in Europe, said Ben Wood, chief of re- model two years ago after
ture components." round ban. It's an unfair the Middle East and Asia. search at CCS Insight. Along switching from an iPhone.q

Short-video app Quibi shutting down just months after launch

By TALI ARBEL ing Hollywood players Disney, NB- Katzenberg's connections helped since its launch; that doesn't mean
AP Technology Writer CUniversal and Viacom and its line up stars to make and star in those are actually users. Other
Short-video app Quibi said it is leadership were big names: en- its videos, including Reese With- streaming services have benefit-
shutting down just six months af- tertainment industry heavyweight erspoon, Steven Spielberg and ed from having customers stuck
ter its early April launch, having Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Jennifer Lopez. There was a short at home during the pandemic.
struggled to find customers. Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whit- version of "60 Minutes" and reality One of the most successful new
The company said Wednesday man. shows. The shows never achieved services, Disney Plus, has more
that it would wind down its opera- But the service struggled to reach big name recognition, although than 60 million subscribers. Netflix

tions and plans to sell its assets. viewers, despite a 90-day free the platform scored some Emmys has had a blockbuster year.
"Quibi is not succeeding," its top trial, as short videos abound on earlier this year. "While we have enough capital
executives bluntly declared in a the internet and the coronavirus Why did it fail? "Likely for one of to continue operating for a signifi-
letter posted online. pandemic kept many people at two reasons: because the idea it- cant period of time, we made the
The video platform — designed for home. Part of the appeal of the self wasn't strong enough to justify difficult decision to wind down
people who were out and about service, which started at $5 a a standalone streaming service or the business, return cash to our
to watch on their phones — was month, was supposed to be that because of our timing," Katzen- shareholders, and say goodbye
one of a slew of new streaming you could watch short videos berg and Whitman wrote. "Unfor- to our talented colleagues with
services started to challenge Net- while out, without access to a TV. tunately, we will never know but grace," Whitman, the CEO, said in
flix over the past few years, most Being stuck at home made TV we suspect it's been a combina- a statement.
of which were part of much big- more desirable than watching on tion of the two." The company said that money
ger tech and entertainment com- a phone, and Quibi only later and Quibi doesn't release subscriber from the sale of its assets will go
panies, like Apple and Disney. slowly rolled out TV options. Kat- figures. Mobile research firm Sen- toward paying off liabilities and
Quibi, short for "quick bites," raised zenberg blamed the pandemic sor Tower estimates 9.6 million in- whatever remains will be returned
$1.75 billion from investors includ- for Quibi's woes. stallations of Quibi's mobile app to investors.q